Jeff Berkowitz: …those potential voters that you are looking at are right out there. They want to know. Tell them your net worth.

State Sen. Susan Garrett: And they should know.

Berkowitz: Well, what’s your net worth?

Sen. Garrett: Five million dollars.

Berkowitz: Really. Okay, is that a good guess.

Sen. Garrett: Two million dollars…you know my net worth is the value of my house and any savings that we have.

Berkowitz: So, is that two million? five million? What would you say?

Sen. Garrett: Probably closer—I would say between two and five.

Berkowitz: Now, can you self-fund at all. Can you use some of that two to five million Dollar net worth to fund some of your campaign.

Sen. Garrett: I have never done that…

Berkowitz: Could you…

Sen. Garrett: I could. Perhaps.

Berkowitz: How much could you self-fund?

Sen. Garrett: Don’t know.

Berkowitz: Would you?

Sen. Garrett: I am not sure…I think if people are going to run for office, the grassroots and others should support their candidacy. I have a problem when people totally self-fund their campaign. ******************************* Pension re-structuring or shorting pensions:

Berkowitz: Let’s go back to that other issue [pension legislation]. That voting and supporting that decision not to make those pension payments this year--

Sen. Garrett: We did make a pension payment—nine hundred and sixty—

Berkowitz: But not as large as they were supposed to, aren’t you shorting the pension system?

Berkowitz: But, how much were you scheduled to pay—something like two billion?

Sen. Garrett: Almost twice that [the amount actually paid].

Berkowitz: So, you shorted it a billion dollars. Is that appropriate?

Sen. Garrett: We restructured.

Berkowitz: Is that appropriate?

Sen. Garrett: Under the circumstances, and let me tell you—the IEA, the Illinois Education Association [a teachers’ union] and [inaudible] were co-authors of that particular plan. We basically--- everything ballooned out because the [George] Ryan administration did early retirement- so we took care of that early retirement which cost a lot more than we anticipated, and then we had to do our regular pension contributions. So, we couldn’t do the entire amount so we restructured it over a longer period of time.

Berkowitz: Is there a chance as a result that state employees and the non-Chicago teachers aren’t going to get what they should get [Chicago teachers have their own retirement plan], down the road?

Sen. Garrett: No.

Berkowitz: You’re insuring that?

Sen. Garrett: No, there’s absolutely—I am insuring that.

Berkowitz: You made that vote?

Sen. Garrett: Yes.

Berkowitz: Did you get some pork? Did [Speaker] Mike persuade you to do this by giving your district some pork?

Sen. Garrett: No, I am actually not on the inside circle.

Berkowitz: So, you didn’t get anything? You just did that vote because that was a vote of conscience and you thought that was the best for the District?

Sen. Garrett: Yeah.

Berkowitz: The best for the State?

Sen. Garrett: Yes. Okay, we could raise taxes. We could expand gambling. I think we did a pretty good job.************************************************State Senator and 10th CD exploratory candidate Susan Garrett [D-Lake Forest, 29th Dist], recorded on June 5, 2005 and as is airing on the Suburban edition of Public Affairs this week [week of June 13] and on the City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs on Monday night, June 20, at 8:30 pm on CANTV’s cable Ch. 21.************************************************Jeff Berkowitz, Host and Producer of Public Affairs and an Executive Recruiter doing Legal Search, can be reached at JBCG@aol.com ************************************************